Fighting the relentless crusade for common-sense conservatism: Life, Liberty, Property, and the Pursuit of Happiness.Live, from the liberal left coast... You will be assimilated!

Friday, 07 October 2005

Carnival of Cordite #33

Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. Small furry creatures, beware! The Carnival of Cordite is here!

For you new readers, the Carnival of Cordite is a weekly roundup of blog posts relating to guns, shooting, defense, hunting, and the law and politics of the Second Amendment. It's also a way to bring in new readers to the participating blogs. So if you like what you see here, please take some time to read my other posts and explore the many fine blogs linked below.

And now...

On with the show!

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Let's leap right into a very important topic that can't be covered enough: Gun Safety!

A guns’ safety is NOT a mechanical device. A guns’ safety is that organ located “in between your ears” and extends out to your “index or trigger finger.”

Just who is this guy? Here is his "about" information:

I am a Police Officer and a National Rifle Association (NRA) certified Pistol & Personal Protection Instructor and former U.S.M.C. Marksmanship Instructor. I bring over 20 years of teaching experience to provide a challenging and practical course to citizens wishing to exercise their Constitutional rights to “keep and bear arms.”

Sounds pretty credible to me. Thanks for the post, and welcome to our gang!

And if you get hurt at the shooting range, what do you need in your first aid kit?

The same liberties that ensure a free society make the innocent vulnerable to those who prevent rights and privileges and commit senseless and cruel acts. Those precious liberties include free speech, freedom to assemble, freedom of liberties, access to public places, the right to bear arms and freedom from constant surveillance. We are not willing to sacrifice these rights because of the acts of maniacs.

In addition, also unlike California, Massachusetts S2113’s ban is IMMEDIATE. There is no compliance period provided, there is no “grandfathering” clause (all rifles and ammunition except law enforcement are prohibited), and apparently calls for CONFISCATION of the firearms and ammunition. As horrible as the California ban was to its citizens, the Massachusetts ban sets a new low in constitutional rights. This is an ironic development considering Massachusetts’ role in the American Revolution.

Coyote Killer has the latest on gun law in Florida. More here. I for one am torn on this issue, as I've mentioned in previous Carnivals. While I respect the rights of people to exercise their right to bear arms, I also respect the private property rights of employers. Both rights appear fundamental to me. How does one resolve a conflict? We may eventually have this issue settled by the Supreme Court... With the court currently having at least 4 and possibly 5 anti-gun votes, one would think that private property rights would trump the Second Amendment. But judging by the Kelo decision, and with the 5 votes in favor of it still on the bench, who knows if private property rights can trump anything?

Long-time friend and reader Doktor X e-mailed me this after watching yet another film where the shooters always held their guns sideways:

While I am at it, I'd like to plug his photography site. No, it's not gun-related, but it has tons of great photos of the Rocky Mountain's (mostly) wilderness. Enjoy!

Another old friend and reader, Wayland, sent in a photo of the neighborhood watch and a warning to looters in the wake of Hurricane Rita:

Not that we condone mixing guns and alcohol, but I guess when in Texas... And based on the spelling, this must be from Texas as well (I will now duck, as all my Texas friends are sure to throw heavy objects my way).

And my favorite comic strip, Day by Day by Chris Muir, has a nice gunny-goodness episode now and again:

That wraps us the Carnival of Cordite this week. For archives and submission information, please see the Carnival of Cordite main page. And please visit the Ubercarnival for a list of all the other fine blog carnivals out there this week.

If you enjoyed the Carnival of Cordite, please feel free to hang around and read all my other posts on politics, culture, books, food, and more on my homepage. Otherwise, see y'all next week. Until then, keep the powder dry!

5 Comments

It's getting a bit arcane out there with the SBR and AOW folk. These folks are either diehard fans of apocalyptic fiction or they haven't read their ballistic tables.

All centerfire rifles and shotguns require barrels over 16" to maximize performance. If you don't believe me look it up in ballistic tables (if you can, there are few ballistic tables published for the short-barrel folks).

The serious gunner pays attention to things like the ballistic performance of their chosen caliber/guage. That serious gunner is well capable to modifying thier battle tactics to utilize a weapon with a proper-length barrel as opposed to a sawed-off (SBR) that no one has compounded or even speculated the ballistics for.

All this talk of sawed-off weapons with pistol grips instead of even rudimentary shoulder stocks may play well in Hollywood, but it won't win many gunfights on the S.H.T.F. battlefield.

Maybe it's the people I know but has anyone else noticed that older shooters have a tough time keeping the trigger finger straight when picking up a gun - exp handguns? My bro-in-law is really bad about this. Glocks aren't forgiving in this manner...

I'm really happy to see that old picture of the "homeboy" sights. I saw that picture a few years ago and managed to somehow lose both the pic and the link. I was trying to hunt it down again just a few weeks ago. Excellent!

al: the practice of keeping your finger outside of the trigger guard is relatively new. As far as I can tell, Cooper introduced it as part of his four rules of safe gun handling. Before that, people ran around all the time with their fingers on the trigger.